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Lexi Thompson, Meena Lee share LPGA Championship lead

Lexi Thompson, Meena Lee both shot 6-under 66 for a share of the LPGA Championship lead

The Associated Press

Posted:
08/14/2014 08:11:50 PM EDT

Lexi Thompson watches her birdie on the 18 hole during the first round of the LPGA Championship on Thursday at Monroe Golf Club in Pittsford, N.Y. Thompson shares the first-round lead with Meena Lee after shooting a 6-under 66. (Jamie Germano — Democrat & Chronicle)

Meena Lee birdies on the 7th hole during the first round of Thursday's LPGA Championship at Monroe Golf Club in Pittsford, N.Y. (Jamie Germano — Democrat & Chronicle)

PITTSFORD, N.Y. &GT;&GT; Long-hitting Lexi Thompson figured she might have an edge on the LPGA Championship's new course.

She did.

Thompson and South Korea's Meena Lee shot 6-under 66 on Thursday to share the first-round lead in the LPGA Tour's fourth major championship of the season.

"It's all about confidence," Thompson said. "You just have to go into every shot just telling yourself you're going to pull it off."

Thompson, the Kraft Nabisco winner in April for her first major title, and Lee each made eight birdies and a pair of bogeys at Monroe Golf Club to finish a stroke ahead of ahead of Brittany Lincicome, Colombia's Lisa McCloskey and Canadian rookie Jennifer Kirby.

Shanshan Feng of China, the tournament winner two years ago, was tied for sixth at 68 with 2010 champion Cristie Kerr.

Catriona Matthew of Scotland, runner-up a year ago to South Korea's Inbee Park, was tied at 69 with seven other players. Park was at even-par 72, one shot better than Paula Creamer and Karrie Webb.

Top-ranked Stacy Lewis, a three-time winner this year, started on the back nine and birdied three of the first five holes, then faltered with three straight bogeys before the turn. She finished at 71.

Locust Hill had been LPGA's host in the Rochester area for 37 straight years before the tour made the switch this year to nearby Monroe and moved the date from June to August. The Donald Ross-designed course is about 300 yards longer at 6,717 yards and does not have a single water hazard, but it does feature 106 bunkers, more than double the number at Locust Hill, and they're deeper.

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The par 3s are longer, too, at 183, 193 and 207 yards, but the wider fairways favor long hitters like Thompson, who led the LPGA coming in with an average of 271.2 yards off the tee. A course made soft by recent rain only made that edge even larger, as did a stiff wind.

"I would say it (driving) was an advantage," said the 6-foot-1 Thompson, who had slumped in her previous four outings, missing one cut. "You just have to hit it straight. Doesn't matter what club you're hitting."

Not a problem on a cool, cloudy, breezy day as the LPGA marks the end of its long run in the Rochester area. Thompson used driver on 14 holes and birdied all four par 5s. And she was accurate, hitting 10 of 14 fairways and reaching 16 of 18 greens in regulation. Consecutive three-putt bogeys on the back side were the only blemishes on a round that reached 7 under with a birdie on the par-5 14th hole.

Lincicome, whose best finish this year is a tie for 10th at the Airbus LPGA Classic in Alabama in May, had eight birdies and three bogeys and avoided any three-putt greens.

"I think, take today and just build," Lincicome said. "I feel like I've been playing well. I've been doing a lot of really good things. It's just not all coming together. I was hitting things to like a foot and just tapping them in. It was stress-free."

Lee hit 12 of 14 fairways, reached 13 of 18 greens in regulation, and needed only 25 putts on the round.

"It's very exciting, and then, well, it's just (the) first day," she said.

Around the links

VILLEGAS TAKES ONE-STROKE LEAD &GT;&GT; In Greensboro, N.C., Camilo Villegas shot a 7-under 63 to take a one-stroke lead after the first round at the Wyndham Championship.

North Carolina natives Webb Simpson and William McGirt had 64, and Scott Langley, Heath Slocum, Paul Casey, Andrew Loupe and Martin Laird were another stroke back in the final event before the PGA Tour's playoffs.

Villegas hasn't won on tour since 2010 and has only two top-10 finishes in the last three years.